President Donald Trump issued another batch of pardons and commutations on Wednesday, granting leniency to 29 people, including former ally Roger Stone, his former campaign president Paul Manafort and his father-in-law’s father-in-law.
The pardon came a day after Trump issued full pardon to 15 people, including ex-House Republicans, key figures in the Russian inquiry and the four former Blackwater mercenaries who killed Iraqi civilians. He also commuted the sentences of five others.
The pardon for Manafort, who was convicted of federal financial crimes prosecuted by the office of former special lawyer Robert Mueller, came as no surprise. Presidential clemency came when the former president of the Trump campaign was serving a seven-year sentence and represents Trump’s last exercise of clemency power to undo the fruits of Mueller’s efforts. In Wednesday’s round, the president granted full pardon to 26 people and commuted part or all of the sentences to three others.
Trump announcement. however, it does not end Manafort’s legal problems. He still faces possible fraud charges in the New York state court, and Trump has no authority to provide clemency on state charges, only federal crimes.
Shortly after the White House announced its pardon, Manafort thanked Trump on Twitter and praised the president’s legacy.
“History will record that your presidency has accomplished more in 4 years than any of its modern predecessors.”
After years of attacking – but failing to stop – Mueller’s investigation, Trump is taking revenge in his final weeks in office, exercising his clemency executive power to reward allies who pleaded guilty or were convicted by a jury. Manafort is the fifth person to face charges as a result of Mueller’s investigation into leniency. The president pardoned former campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and lawyer Alex van der Zwaan on Tuesday a few weeks after pardoning former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Over the summer, Trump commuted the sentence of Stone, a former Trump campaign advisor who was sentenced to prison for lying to Congress during the investigation in Russia, obstructing investigators and tampering with witnesses. On Wednesday, Trump granted him a full pardon, completely clearing his record of criminal charges.
Real estate developer Charles Kushner also received total forgiveness on Wednesday. Kushner, father of Trump’s aide and son-in-law Jared, spent about a year in federal prison after pleading guilty to campaign funding violations and tampering with witnesses. Notably, the White House announcement about forgiveness did not mention his son among those who supported the decision.
Wednesday’s pardons also included Margaret Hunter, wife of former US deputy Duncan Hunter, who was pardoned by the president on Tuesday. The California couple was arrested in 2018 after federal prosecutors accused them of spending more than $ 250,000 on campaign funds on family vacations, theater tickets and meals. Initially, they pleaded not guilty, but last summer Margaret agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and changed her confession to guilty. Several months later, her husband did the same and resigned from Congress.